By Leftlane Staff
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006 @ 10:56 am

Jaguar lead designer Ian Callum has stated many times in the press that pedestrian safety regulations left the front end of the new Jaguar XK looking a little bloated. Of course, as the LA Times points out, it’s hardly the first time something like this has happened. “The current Pontiac Solstice is a lovely roadster,” writes columnist Dan Neil. “Until you attach a front license plate — required by California law — on its bullet-smooth nose, after which the car looks like it has buckteeth.” But Neil argues over the years, Jaguar has had it worst. “No company has suffered more than Jaguar. In 1968, the U.S. Department of Transportation banned the use of glass-covered headlamps [...] By 1974, the Series III E-Type front end had been comically fitted with blocky, black-rubber Dagmars. For most of the next two decades, the company’s otherwise handsome cars (XJS, XJ6) were sandwiched between oversized chrome-and-rubber bumpers that looked like sterling-and-bakelite handles on a tea service.”

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